Do you have a favorite?

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Howdy! 

 

On the heels of hearing about your best flip stories and the connections that so many of you have made I'm curious: do you have a favorite customer? Could be a memorable one-off buyer or a regular that has become endearing.

Tyler,
eBay
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Do you have a favorite?

My favourite buyer is a person living in a remote area - usually buys 5-10 books at a time. 

 

After reading the books, sends me a review of each book - the reviews are always interesting and most are  full of this person's sense of humour.

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Do you have a favorite?

Unexpected locations maybe. 1)Shipped a Boston Bruins : Celebrating 75 Years - SIGNED LIMITED EDITION to the Canadian Embassy in Sweden. 2)Quickest order delivered overnight (7:00 am) to Ottawa from Calgary to Canadapost Corporation. Ontario is usually minimum of 4 days by Expedited.

 

-Lotz

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Do you have a favorite?

Lol @lotzofuniquegoodies - sounds like some carrier knew where their bread was buttered. 

Tyler,
eBay
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Do you have a favorite?


@lucitabby wrote:

My favourite buyer is a person living in a remote area - usually buys 5-10 books at a time. 

 

After reading the books, sends me a review of each book - the reviews are always interesting and most are  full of this person's sense of humour.


That's so cool @lucitabby! Do you have a favorite review of theirs that you'd be willing to share? 

Tyler,
eBay
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Do you have a favorite?

No, Tyler - I have never kept them.   I do remember one book was an old cookbook - I think Mrs Beetons  and the review was on some of the household tips that had been tried with little success.

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Do you have a favorite?

A loving daughter who was delighted to find one of the books her daddy had written in the 1950's. Wrote a very nice note about how pleased she was. She had been putting together a library of his works which were hard to find.

Thing is he was writing prawn. BDSM paperback pulps with GGA* covers.  Sample title "Bordertown Lust".

Families.

 

 

 

*GGA- Good Girl Art pictures nice girls in unfortunate situations, usually involving rope.

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Over the years I have developed a good business relationship with a number of customers here  that have lasted over the years.  Have always been greatful for their continued business  May not hear from them often now but they do show up from time to time

 

Offline though I have a few customers that started out that way but have also become friends

 

One gentleman I met 42 years ago. He was at first my acting landlord  at the University I attended.  Lost touch with him 4 years later when we moved from the University property we lived in but about 5 years later he became one of my Customers I had at a store I had.  He had begun to collect Post Cards and became one of my best customers. Over a 10 year period I helped him develop one of the best  Collections in the area he collected. He has been a Antique Collector  since he was a teenager and has and had one heck of a collection in a number of different categories 

 

After he retired he decided to sell parts of his collection. I was the first person he thought of to sell his smalls to. Some of these items were amazing and very difficult to find  Told me right off it was not really for the money  he wanted these items to go to someone he knew that appreciated them.  He knew I would be reselling them and felt I was the best choice. I was very Honored   

 

Used to go over to his place once or twice a week to look at items  Each session would last 4 to 6 hours. Would deal with him for 15 or 20 minutes at a time buying then spend time visiting and shooting the Bull. It was a difficult time for him selling these  Some of these items he had owned 50 years or more so our dealings were always low key and I never pushed. I Just was thrilled  with what I got from him

 

My friend  is now 93 years old still buys and  has an amazing collection just reduced. He has always had an eye for quality  items 

 

Another Customer I used to deal with a lot about 20 years ago then lost touch with him.  When I began  doing the 2 major shows I now do  he was attending them and once again has become a great customer

 

It is always a joy to see him.  while I appreciate his business  that's not the most important thing.  I get to see and interact with him and  that's what is important. An advanced collector his collection is amazing and talking to him I learn so much

 

He is genuinely a very nice person. He's the type of person people get drawn to.  They may not know who he is  but get drawn to him when they see and listen to him. At shows if a large number of folk gather in an area of it 9 times out of 10 he is the reason.  People leave smiling getting to meet or listen to him.  This is just him he doesn't try to attract people  It's just in his nature. This man is now in his mid 80's and is still very active

 

 I hope I can be like them even if it's just a little when I grow up

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Do you have a favorite?

I don't really have any special stories from eBay... I do have some repeat buyers here but we never really chatted much other than maybe a couple exchange or messages at point of sale. The best one was probably a buyer who happened to have bought from my blog before, and I actually didn't have the item she wanted anymore and had to refund her, and she still left me a positive feedback afterwards.

When I used to sell on my blog, I usually do teaser preview of what my next big sale will include, and I will also post a time and date of when the sale will start. There's this one regular buyer from the States who will almost always buy the most things and be the first one to buy, and always tells me how much she loved all the things she got from me. I think she probably bought $1500 worth over the years, including things that I made myself. I have stopped updating that blog for like 8+ years now since I started my second degree (it's a heavy accelerated program) so I have lost contact with her (as well as the online friends I had back then), but she was definitely my favourite and pleasant buyer.

My career is pretty successful now, but I also lost many friends over the last few years, sometimes I do wonder if it was worth it.
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This goes back a long time, but it was a memorable sale for me. I had a set of 3 LPs with an assortment of material including interviews, radio clips and an assortment of music, a really odd lot. 

 

This was in the days before the abbreviated item descriptions so I listed all the tracks on all three albums. 1 of the tracks was an interview with Ray Bradbury.

 

The person who bought the albums thanked me profusely for offering these albums for sale. He worked for The Ray Bradbury Archives, that's not the exact title, it sounded quite impressive, but of course could have been a fan with a collection in his basement.  

 

I was very happy that I included all the information in the description, there was not much interest in the records, but having Ray Bradbury's name buried in the listing description got this customers interest, and I've never had such a happy customer. 

 

 

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Songstress Rachel Bloom has a tribute to Ray Bradbury on YouTube.

Do NOT play it at work.

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